Betty Padgett

Although sweet-voiced Southern Florida R&B diva Betty Padgett continues to be a dynamic performer and sporadic recording artist for many years, she’s made just scarce and fleeting impressions for the radar of also dedicated soul and funk aficionados, a minimum of until recently. Delivered in Newport, NJ, and elevated in Florida from 6th quality onward, she implemented the well-worn route from cathedral choir to concert stage. Immersing herself within the flourishing Florida funk picture of the first ’70s, she began an all-female group, Betty & the Q’s, and agreed upon on in 1971 using a Fort Lauderdale funk clothing, Joey Gilmore & the T.C.B. Express, with whom she’d tour, locally and internationally, for another 17 years. Following a hometown gig in 1974, she was contacted by local spirit tale Milton Wright, who helped start her solo profession by co-writing and organizing the material that could become her debut LP, documented within a night time when Padgett was only 21 yrs . old. The ensuing record was a amazingly mature and achieved mixture of mellow spirit, uptempo funk, and sultry steady-rocking reggae, however the standout cut was “Glucose Daddy,” a two-part disco groover which was pressed being a 12″ and became sizable local hit, featured within a Pepsi industrial and reaching a minimum of so far as Belize, where Padgett toured to get the album. Even so, the record (alternately described by the name of its one and its vocalist) had not been a great achievement, and Padgett continued to be largely restricted to the local circuit, where she’d trip out the disco period and beyond, writing stages with famous brands Gwen McRae, Joe Tex, Denise LaSalle, and Bobby Bland, launching albums just intermittently — 1981’s disco-fied Lovely Sense, 1998’s 30 Second Guy, 2004’s Closet Fan, and 2006’s Under no circumstances Coming House — on the ensuing years. Curiously enough, background swept up with Padgett in ’09 2009, when groove-oriented label Luv N’ Haight made a decision to reissue her 1st record (as well as the “Sugars Daddy” 12″) after it had been “found out” by way of a crate-digging L.A. DJ, therefore giving the recording its 1st high-profile, national launch.